Their rewards didn't e out of a chest. Instead, in ea, a siem was id atop a pedestal. Since she and Ana were on a time limit—and this time, of their own irresponsible creation—they sed the area for traps, grabbed their loot, and moved to the room. There would be time to identify the items after they'd returo the dungeon proper, and more importantly, taken a dose of the iility potion.

  So despite her curiosity, she purposefully didn't ihe items, knowing they would distract her, sure to be the typical brand of ridiculousness. Though she couldn't help but heir appearances: an ink vial, a neckce, and an arrow with a pial tip.

  The third reward room had a into a familiar-looking hallway, which hosted a dder up and a door leading deeper into the series of challenges. Which meant the event wasn't over; they could go deeper if they wahat revetion made her resolve waver. Maybe they should tihe rewards were amazing. She had hoped the challenge would clude naturally, so the decision would be out of her hands.

  But the two of them had id out their reasoning for wanting to leave early, and a fual rule of dunge was to not get too greedy. There was always more loot to dig up, more challeo take on. Greedy delvers rarely made it to the higher levels. Oftehey didn't make it back to the surface. Good judgment o prevail.

  So, sharing a look with Ana, Natalie hen asded the exit dder. It was awkward with all their retly gained loot, and especially with her enormous two-handed hammer, but not so tricky she couldn't ma.

  The dder led into an opening in the ceiling, and the light from below faded as she, with difficulty, climbed higher and higher. Ana followed beh her.

  It took a while, with Natalie even w up a sweat, before something happehough it wasn't them reag the top. Instead, without warning, the entire wall, dder included, bucked, as if something gigantic had hit the stone and rattled the assion shaft. Natalie was sent tumbling backwards, and instead of hitting the other side of the wall, she passed through open air, then started plummeting down a smooth, angled passageway.

  She cursed as she tumbled downward, losing grip oems as she went head-over-heels in the darkness. Her elbows, knees, and head banged every avaible surface. For a long minute—probably faster, but the aggravating dest didn't feel like it—Natalie simply tumbled, desperately trying to get her bearings as she unceremoniously barreled through the exit chute.

  The rude passageat her out from the ceiling, and Natalie smmed into the ground—and not gently, either. She was a level-two tank, so a mundane fall from that height wasn't incapacitating, but that said, it wasn't pleasant. Tougher than most people or not, hurtling from the ceiling into hard tiles would leave a few bruises, .

  Scrambling to her feet—there was no time to lie on the floor and groan in displeasure—Natalie realized somethi strange about her body. Something had ged while she'd been falling. She was too disoriented, and worried about her immediate safety, to make the obvious clusion why.

  Natalie sed the room to make sure there weren't monsters, then, hearing Ana tumbling down above her, rushed over to catch her. Their team's mage didn't have the physical durability she did. Hitting the ground at that speed might actually hurt her.

  Natalie got in position just in time, catg Ana as she barreled from the ceiling. The thin woman nded in her arms with an 'oof', her breath taken as she smmed into Natalie's grip. It wasn't a perfect catch, but much better than hitting the ground at full speed.

  For a moment, Ana blinked up at her—and Natalie at the mage, also caught off guard. Because it was Ana, cradled inside her arms. As in, Ana. In her own body. And just as oddly, wearing her flimsy mage's robes, barely cealing her modesty. She'd e out of the shaft fully dressed.

  And so was she herself, Natalie realized. Their dest had not only giveheir bodies back, but their armor and items, too.

  Then, with the frantic exit from the challenge room calming down, Natalie was able to focus on ahing that felt strange.

  She stiffened in realization.

  "It's still inside me," Natalie hissed at the woman in her arms. "You didn't take it out?!"

  Ana tilted her head. It took her a sed to uand.

  "Oh," Ana said. "My on."

  "Don't call it that," Natalie growled. "And you left it inside me. Seriously?"

  "We were in a rush," Ana said matter-of-factly. "And I fot. You could have remembered, too."

  "How do you fet this thing is inside you? It's huge."

  And that was while it was just sitting there. Now that Natalie had enough of her bearings to uand what she was feeling, she couldn't focus on anything besides the way she was being stretched around the toy. Ana's squirming and pained moans while it had been going in made a lot more sense, now: it felt even bigger than it looked. She'd been walking around with this the eime? Even during bat?

  "You'd be surprised what you adapt to," Ana said simply. "And, thank you for the catch, but please set me down."

  Natalie set the smaller woman on her feet. It was weird looking down at her again; she had growo being shorter than she was.

  Ana adjusted her robes, reg some of her modesty. It really was a revealing piece of equipment. "And, I will need my on back," she ented. "Soohan ter. So …"

  Oh, heavens. She did, didn't she? The plug felt huge just sitting there, much less when she would have to pull it out. At least, Natalie supposed, she had the advantage of being stretched out in advance. Ana hadn't had any such preparation.

  Natalie started to mentally brace for that, but crashing noises ing from above interrupted them. Both their heads snapped up.

  "A quick reunion with our team?" Ana asked, looking in vague i at the exit chute. "Or monsters?"

  Natalie scooped up her hammer, ready for the worst—but it turned out to be the former. A blur of white hair rocketed out of the tunnel. Sofia.

  Annoyingly, the woman twisted in the air, then nded feet-first in a crouch. She uncoiled herself in the instant, rapier drawn, aimed at Natalie and Ana in a deadly pose. She didn't look perturbed by the violent tumble in the slightest.

  This woman just always had to be perfect, didn't she? Natalie eyed her, oddly aggravated at the elegant nding. At least she hadn't seen Natalie sm nearly face-first into the ground during her exit.

  "Oh," Sofia said, orienting herself. "It's you two."

  Sofia's colr was still around her neck, with the leash attached to her ow. It had broken off Natalie's when she'd jumped through the portal. Natalie had almost fotten about that. And her heart did a little jump, seeing the accessory.

  In just as smooth of a motion as her nding, Sofia sheathed her rapier, then took oep sideways and caught Liz as she crashed down from the ceiling. She set the healer on her feet, gave her a once-over, then nodded in approval before Liz even seemed to know what was going on.

  Jordan came , but Sofia didn't bother to try and catch her—their rogue he most smoothly out of all of them, not even seeming to try to orient herself. Like a cat, perfectly unruffled by the violent, discerting arrival. She was their prowess-based css, to be fair. Even more than Sofia.

  Jordan brushed herself off, then g Natalie and Ana.

  "Nat-Nat?" she asked. "Or Ana-Nat, still?"

  "It's me," Natalie said.

  And thank the heavens that all of that fusing nonsense was over.

  "Good to see you two made it out fine," Jordan said with a nod. She looked around the room. "Now, what's going on here?"